Craig Brown & Abby Wills


Craig and Abby, pictured above, staying at Chanters Lodge, guested on the latest edition of our Sunday night radio show – the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild – which airs every Sunday night from 20.30 – 21.30 hours on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. It was the last show of 2010!

Craig’s a New Zealander, Abby’s English, and although not married they’re partners and currently live in Johannesburg, South Africa where Craig’s a consulting engineer with Mott MacDonald an employee-owned management, engineering and development consultancy serving the public and private sector around the world. “Do you work?” Milli Jam asked Abby. “No” she replied “I’m a lady of leisure in Johannesburg with a great social life and loads of friends, mainly because of work permit problems”. “That must be a a bit boring, wouldn’t you prefer to be working”? I chipped in. “Not in the slightest”! Was Abby’s instant reply which had us laughing.

Quite a lot of chat on the show was about rugby. Obviously we wanted to know from Craig, a former player with London Scottish, why New Zealand had never won the Rugby World Cup! Craig claimed that they had, in the 80’s, but Abby quickly scotched this idea by reminding him that South Africa didn’t feature then, so somehow it wasn’t a genuine victory! Nice one Abby!

Craig and Abby told listeners about their fascinating travels to both Cambodia and Rwanda earlier in the year with the Penguins Rugby Club, teaching rugby in these developing countries to disadvantaged youngsters. They’d been surprised at the amount of raw talent seen in both places. The Penguins is a ‘by invitation only’ club and you can read more about it by following the link above. What did surprise us was to hear that Abby had also been a rugby player when she was younger until injury forced an early retirement. We also had respect for Craig on learning that he’d recently completed the Paris Marathon in under 3.5 hours.

The music on the show was good, as usual. We got off to a flier with the Ghanain band R2Bees ft Wande Coal’s ‘Kiss Your Hand’ back to back with the awesome ‘Man Down’ from Rihanna’s latest smash album. George chose Petersen’s ‘Wanna Dance With You’ and Kelvin Mwesa’s ‘Wonderful Time’ for his two local tracks. Milli Jam chose Jamie Foxx with ‘Winner’ and Akon’s (imo horrible) ‘No Labels’. We also played ‘Many of Horror’ by Biffy Clyro to give listeners a feel for the UK Christmas No.1. I commented that our closing track Sean Kingston’s great ‘Party All Night’ (and sleep all day) was a good track for this time of year in Livingstone.

Craig and Abby told listeners about their one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana where they’d been lucky enough to see a pride of 8 lions – a record for our guests on that trip. This delightful couple had also enjoyed their helicopter flight over the Falls, as well as a sunset cruise and a morning river safari. Abby told listeners that on their last morning, the next day, she intended to bungee jump. (And she did!)

I took the chance to wish our listeners a belated Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2011, and also to thank the staff at the lodge for their extra-ordinary hard work during the holiday period. As we went on air the lodge was packed and for once the girls didn’t have too much chance to enjoy the show!

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Zambian Music Scene


George Da Soulchild, co-host of our remarkably successful radio programme The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Da Soulchild (pictured above), writes a blog for us every week about the local music scene. Our radio show goes out for an hour every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm and features latest music worldwide, and chat. Guests are usually international and often resident at Chanters Lodge. Here’s George’s latest piece about Danny and Taonga.

Up And Coming Gospel Artist Taonga Gets Double ‘Born & Bred’ Nomination.
Being nominated for the Born & Bred music and video awards may be considered a great achievement for any young artist seeking recognition on the Zambian music scene. 21-year-old Taonga Nyirongo has been nominated not for one, but two awards this year. Firstly in the Best Gospel Video category for his song Chikondi which is popular on ZNBC TV2.

Taonga’s second nomination is for Best Promising Artist category, something which he says is an achievement knowing the fact that he is yet to succeed in the music industry. Taonga who also presents gospel show on Muvi TV says the music indutry is on the raise and the Goverment and the business society should invest as it does in other countries to ensure the growth of the Industry. Other nominees for Born and Bred include JK, Slap D, Alfa Romeo, Roberto, Brothahood Crew, Judy and Petersen just to mention a few.

Born n Bred Awards are set for the 16 of this month and will be aired live on Both ZNBC and ZNBC TV2 @20:30.

Danny Takes Album Launch To RSA
Danny Siulapwa aka Danny Kaya is set to take his ‘Live’ album launch to South Africa under the the auspices of DJ Tabs Entertainment. Danny,said his decision to go to South Africa for a show on December 15 was due to popular demand. So if you’re in South Africa on the 15th December, just make sure you attend the show.

And for that matter, if you’re in Livingstone on Sunday evening, make sure you don’t miss the Chanters Lodge Experience on 107.7 fm at 20.30 hours – you might even win a dinner for 2 at the fantastic Chanters Lodge!

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The Aussies Are Back!


No! Even though it’s Ashes time this isn’t a cricket reference! The headline refers to the three Australian ladies pictured above left to right – Judy Smetherham, Kerry Hegney and Di Rapson, appearing (with furry friends) for the second time on our weekly Sunday night radio show, The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild, which goes out live at 20.30 hours for an hour on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm. The ladies’ first appearance was back in April 2009 on their last visit to Zambia. What brought them back? Well, when they were asked this on air, their smart reply was “we heard rumours Richard was looking much younger”! “Quite right too!” I said, while others just sniggered…

In fact the ‘girls’ were back in Livingstone for two weeks to do some of the things they hadn’t done on their last visit, including a microlight flight over the Falls, a swim in Devil’s Pool on Livingstone Island and a two night, three day visit to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, leaving from Kasane Airport the next day. They also planned to do the cheetah encounter and as usual visit Maramba Market and Zambian friends they’d made during their last stay. In a way more importantly, the ladies had come from Australia via the Copperbelt in Zambia where they’d delivered 400 school bags, and over 200 soft toys to children at Chiwawatala, Chankuta and Mishikishi Primary Schools. They had to get special permission from the airlines they used to carry all that excess luggage in such a good cause. Oh! and they brought some beanies too. “Beanies”? I hear you ask. Don’t know your Aussie slang do ya? Woollen hats in real English. I only knew the slang as the ladies kindly brought me the ‘Australian Slang Dictionary’! Allows me to be rude to the Aussie cricketers on TV in their own language.

The only tinge of sadness was the news that Mr Billy Mulonda, head of one of the families the ladies had been helping in Ndola had been struck by lightning and killed the day they were leaving the Copperbelt. We sent our deepest condolences. After the Copperbelt the ladies had spent time at Mfue Lodge in South Luangwa National Park and had had a great time, seeing loads and loads of different animals.

The music on the show was awesome and featured numbers from Aggro Santos, Bruno Mars and Cee Lo Green to get the party started. George chose Cray J with ‘Chipe’ for the first of his local tracks, and then Brothahood Crew with ‘If It’s Loving’. George himself featured on this track – as I mentioned last week he’s a locally famous singer by the name of Kafuela as well as a great DJ and technician. George was hot from a live rock show at a venue in Livingstone on Saturday afternoon organized by 107.7 fm. ‘Were you mobbed by young girls’? I wanted to know. ‘Of course’! Was the short answer. Milli Jam chose 112 with ‘Only You’ and Aliyah with ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number’ for his tracks, after which we moved on to ‘Bottoms Up’ by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj, ‘Love All Over Me’ by Monica and Jay Sean’s great ‘Break Ya Back’!

“What have you ladies been up to since the last time we saw you” Milli Jam wanted to know. Well, plenty was the answer. Judy had travelled to the UK and Paris, Kerry to Egypt, Turkey and Holland and Di to Bali. Di, who’d sadly lost her dad during this period, had also been to shows by Pink and Nickelback in Perth where these ladies live. “Noticed any changes in Livingstone and at Chanters”? The DJ’s wanted to know. “Plenty”! The girls replied – mentioning new rooms and the suite at Chanters, as well as Richard and Annastasia’s new offices. They’d seen that Livingstone boasted a new shopping mall.

As usual we gave away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks to the first person this week who could tell us where these lively and funny ladies came from. Australia was the first answer we received by text from Karen. Result!

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Isaac Mwanza & Mubiana Jeff Nalwendo


Our Guests on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George Da Soulchild, were Isaac Mwanza (left) and Mubiana Jeff Nalwendo pictured above. Isaac is IT Manager at Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm and Mubiana is Production and Programmes Manager. Bit incestuous you’re thinking, considering our regular Sunday night radio show goes out on their station? Maybe, but they guys were there for a purpose.

As well as being part of the management of the station both gentlemen are very popular local DJ’s! Isaac goes on air as DJ Chin Cavaly 2010 and Jeff is MJ Fabulous! This Saturday 4th December the guys are organizing a show in Livingstone for upcoming musicians where the young and talented can display their music to the fans. (This stirred memories for me as we used to do the same sort of thing at Southern Sun Ridgeway Hotel on Folk Night, every Tuesday. A lot of older musicians in Zambia got their break on that show.) “Who’s starring for you”? I asked. “Locally it’s Kaufela” they replied, “but we’re bringing in BFlow from Lusaka, because we feel the fans should get value for the K15,000 per ticket they’ll be paying”. “Tell me about Kaufela” I continued. “George can tell you more” Isaac said. “It’s me” said George. “Yes” I said “you’re going to tell us about him”. “It’s me”! George said again, “I’m Kaufela”. Well, blow me down! I’d realised George was also a musician, but had no idea he was so well known on the local scene! MJ and Chin took the chance to thank all the many local companies that were helping to sponsor the show, including Chanters Lodge. The final line up of musicians had yet to be confirmed but it was announced that Milli Jam would be MC for the show!

Milli Jam wanted to know how Isaac and Mubiana had come up with their show business names. Isaac was reticent but said he changed his name every year and it was nothing to worry about. Mubiana said that at his father’s suggestion he had had used his initials, and it was the fans early on in his career at UNZAfm who’d added ‘Fabulous’. Mubiana is a graduate in Mass Communications from the University of Zambia and Isaac is expecting admission into the Copperbelt University next year to read computer studies. He’s already an expert in this field. MJ is famous for playing new numbers, Chin for hip-hop and r&b plus his chart knowledge which is legendary.

The music on the show was good but somehow drowned out by the noise! When DJ’s get together – and there were 5 in the studio including Tendai With An ‘i’ but not including me – they talk a lot. Anyway we played ‘Girls Fall Like Dominoes’ by Nicki Minaj, back to back with ‘So Alive’ by Skepta ft NDubz. Kaufela’s selection was ‘Hands Across The World’ by ONE8 the smash hit combination of R Kelly and loads of African artists including JK, a Zambian star. George coupled it with ‘Nibandani Ba Nzako’ from the new as yet unreleased K’Millian album. ‘Where are your friends when you need them’ was the translation. Milli Jam featured Rick Ross with ‘Aston Martin Music’.

Isaac and Mubiana briefed listeners about their roles at Zambezi fm as well as plans for the station’s new website and we gave away the usual dinner for 2 – won on this occasion by the manager of a rival local radio station! It was a good and informative show.

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Ty2 & Born N Bred Awards

George Soulchild who co-hosts our Sunday night radio show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, contributes regularly to the blog. Here’s his latest piece:

Ty2 Reaches out to Jakayo

Local artist Ty2, whose real name is Mbangweta Mweendaweli, has reached out to Jk and Kayombo to help him relaunch his 4th studio album in grand style. JK and Kayombo, together know as “JAKAYO”, are jointly managing a music distribution, promotion and packaging company under the same name.

“Another Level” is Ty2’s latest offering – it was quietly released in June this year under David Sling Studio – but because of lack of promotion not many fans knew that the album was out, resulting in poor CD sales.Ty2 hopes that the move to Jakayo will boost sales. More importantly he hopes it will put him in a position to have shows almost every weekend. Most artistes in Zambia make more money from concerts than from CD sales.

Born N Bred video awards set for the 16 of December.

Born and Bred music video Awards have been held every year in December since 2008. This year, Zambia’s only video music awards are set for Thursday 16th December.The biggest question on everyone’s mind is who is going to win the Music Video Of The Year, as this year has seen some great music videos – most of them being locally produced. Music Video Of The Year has in the past been won by the likes of Mampi and Roberto. The awards were created to help the music industry advance in music video productions and so far things are looking great:-)

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3 Lovely Ladies On 107.7 FM!


Check Felicity Clarke, Sarah Martin and Catherine Kelly in the picture above, as they appeared on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild on Sunday 24th October – Independence Day in Zambia! The show is sponsored by Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, and goes out on Zambezi Radio 107.7 FM, every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs. The girls live in Liverpool together, and met when they were at Liverpool University. Felicity’s a software developer, Sarah runs a branch of a car hire company and Catherine’s a social worker. What a lot of fun they were too on Zambezi FM, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station – where ‘the waves flow’.

“Is it true Felicity”, Milli Jam our host wanted to know, “that when you arrived at Livingstone Airport you tried to withdraw 150 million Zambian kwacha from the ATM”!? (About US$33,000) “Yes! I got mixed up with the number of zeros”! She confessed. “Just as well I was there to help you”! I said, as we laughed. “Did you enjoy your white water rafting”? Milli Jam continued, and the girls said that they’d enjoyed it a lot. They’d fallen out of the boat a few times but had regarded this as part and parcel of the fun. “What other activities have you done”? The girls were asked, and they told listeners that they’d done an abseiling package involving the zip line, gorge swing and flying fox as well as the abseil. They’d also been on the sunset cruise and had swum in Devil’s Pool on Livingstone Island. They’d packed a lot into the two full days and a half they’d spent at Chanters Lodge as our Guests.

“What made you choose Chanters”? Milli Jam asked, and the girls said they’d booked at quite short notice and had been guided by the good reviews they’d read about the lodge on TripAdvisor. No great surprise, many of our Guests say the same. “Are you pleased with your choice?” Milimo (his ‘real’ name) continued. “Oh! Yes!” the girls enthused – “the staff have been great and we’ve had a lovely time”!

The music on the show was up to our normal high standard. Rihanna’s ‘What’s My Name’ from her new album has ‘hit’ written all over it. We coupled that with Bruno Mars and ‘Today My Life Begins’ – sweet stuff. George’s Zambian selections were from Kaufela and Judy and I’m sure, as usual, he’ll write his piece for the blog later in the week. The tracks were ‘Sky Is The Limit’ and ‘Supernatural Woman’ respectively. Milli Jam was back in time with Brandy’s cover of the Phil Collins hit ‘Another Day in Paradise’ coupled with Boyz II Men and ‘Waters Run Dry’ – nice! Ciara’s ‘Gimme That’ and Lady Gaga’s ‘Nothing On But The Radio’ went down well with the Chanters Girls back at the lodge, though they’d asked for Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’. Maybe next week!

“Where would you like to be and what would you like to be doing 10 years from now?” We asked the girls. “We can’t answer questions like that!” They giggled. “We live for today”! “You live in Liverpool, have you met Stevie Gerrard”? “We don’t know much about football” they said. “Oh! But wait!” said Felicity “I once got Jamie Carragher’s autograph for my brother”! Great stuff!

Milli Jam wanted to know if we’d had a good response from the vacancies we’d announced on last week’s show, and I was happy to report that we’d had an excellent response and had made two new appointments. Was there a prize this week? Yes there was, for the first person to text us he name of the city where these girls lived. ‘Liverpool’ came the answer from Lubeta – before I’d even read out the number to text! Awesome!

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Zambian Music – Progress


George Soulchild, who co-hosts our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm writes this optimistic view of Zambian music:-

Local artistes Exile (Kangwa Kampamba) pictured above, and Bryan, last weekend visited Nakonde in Northern Province for a number of shows. The duo, who arrived in the early hours of Friday, took time to mingle with fans before performing two shows at Ikumbi Bar and Guest House.

Residents from Tunduma in Tanzania and surrounding towns were part of the audience that gathered to be part of the thrilling performances. After treating the audience to well synchronised hits by Dj Ron Power, Bryan stepped on stage amid cheers to perform songs from his ‘Breakthrough’ album, before being joined by Exile to sing ‘Lyonse Nganakumona.’

In an interview, Exile described the show in the border town as great. “The show was great going by the standards of Nakonde. It’s great that people here love Zambian music exactly the way people elsewhere love it, and it’s also wonderful to travel this far and perform” said Exile. And Bryan said he was happy with the warm welcome he received in Nakonde. “For me it’s a plus because people are appreciating my music. Musicians in our country are not benefiting from their talent despite spending too much time and money in producing their music”. He further advised upcoming musicians to focus on quality when producing their music instead of rushing to make money.

Exile and Bryan are just some of the many Zambian artistes that are being appreciated worldwide. Give it a year or two and I promise you the current Zambian music will take over Africa – if not the world – just like R&B did. There is so much undiscovered talent. Other countries that appreciate and support Zambian music and artists include Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, DRC, South Africa, Uganda, USA, UK and Austria to mention a few.

Almost every month this year we read about a Zambian artist putting up a great and memorable performance when invited to perform outside the country. This has been as a result of great music production as well as quality video produtions – most of which are recorded locally – only a few artistes have the resources to work with international producers. Plenty of those videos are now airing on international music channels like MTVbase and Channel O, doubling the number compared to last year – a big step for the music industry in Zambia.

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Lion Country


We were delighted on Sunday night’s ‘Chanters Lodge Experience’ (our regular weekly radio show aired from 20.30 hrs for an hour on Zambezi 107.7 fm Livingstone’s great local radio station), to host the film crew staying at Chanters. The team are winding up filming the lion encounter based at Thorn Tree Lodge for the forthcoming second series of Lion Country, a documentary to be broadcast on ITV in UK from January 2011 every Friday at 20.00 hrs for 12 weeks.

“We’re in competition with Eastenders at that time” commented Phil Broadhurst – the cameraman who took that great shot of the studio above. Personally I don’t think they need to worry – they had an audience of 4 million for the first series and the second series sounds wonderful! The rest of the crew in attendance were Sebastian Dunn, the sound man, and Alison Quirk, the producer. Also in the photo are Milli Jam and George Soulchild who expertly co-host the show, and myself.

“Are you scared of lions?” We wanted to know. Generally they said they were not, but they mentioned that when they were filming in Zimbabwe they were surrounded at night by 80 of the beasts making a tremendous noise. Sebastian, the sound man, gave us a great impression of a lion’s roar which we made him repeat! “Have you done the night encounter?” we asked the crew. “Not yet, it’s the last thing we have to shoot before we go home” Alison informed the listeners.

The crew gave us the background to their professional careers revealing that both Phil and Seb have been highly involved with all sorts of programmes featuring wildlife in the past. Alison is the producer and the organizer. We’ve had great business at Chanters from various members of this crew during 2010, and it was lovely to hear them praise the lodge, the food and the staff and to tell listeners that Chanters really felt like their second home.

The music for the show was a good mix as usual. Bruno Mars ‘Just The Way You Are’ kept up our record of playing the current number one in UK – we played it back to back with Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl In The World’ the first single from her new album, high in the US Charts. On the local scene George featured ‘Temperature’ by Uniq (“I suppose it means his girl friend raises his temperature” I speculated. “Affirmative” the guys replied). We played the ever popular Petersen’s “Dance With You” as well. (I was delighted to be given a copy of the new JK album by George, though Milli Jam reported massive disappointment amongst the Livingstone public that JK had been miming during his recent album launch at Steprite).

Milli Jam featured Soul IV Real’ ‘Candy Love’ back to back with Aaliyah’s ‘Rock The Boat’ and we played two tracks from the new Phil Collins album ‘Going Back’ – the title track and ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’. Great new version of an old favourite. We played ‘Going Back’ for Cara, the Lion Manager out at lion encounter who’s a great Collins fan.

As usual we gave away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks – this week for the first person to text us the name of the animal the guys had come to here to film. There was a quick response and everyone got it right! We greeted Guests, mentioning that we were very multi-national this week at Chanters with Guests from Japan, Italy, UK, Egypt, USA, Norway, South Africa and Zambia. We wished two of the Chanters Girls not feeling well a speedy recovery, and greeted the rest of the staff by name too.

The crew thanked the lodge for our hospitality and thanked too all the people at lion encounter who had made their trip so memorable. “When do you leave?” Asked Milli Jam. “On Wednesday” replied Phil, as Milimo and George laughed. “What’s funny?” asked Phil. “Richard only brings Guests leaving on Monday” they replied, as we closed a really fun show.

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Maureen Lilanda


Looking for something to blog this morning, I turned to a piece that George Souldchild wrote about the Chanters Lodge Experience, our weekly Sunday night radio show that goes out on Zambezi Radio on 107.7 fm at 20.30 hrs, while I was away on leave:

“How are you? How’s the England weather treating you? Livingstone is hot! Too hot! Despite that I’m OK and so is Millie Jam. We really missed you again last Sunday, the response was very good. The playlist was a mixture as always. We played ‘Your Love’ by Nickie Minaj, ‘Coca Cola’ by Oga Kent (very hot Zambian song at the moment). Also JK featuring Salma – ‘Kapiripiri’, Ne-Yo ‘Crazy Love’ and Chris Brown – ‘Deuces’ – just to mention a few.” Sounds a really good show!

After this George went on to write:

Maureen Lupo Lilanda to just Lupo

Soulful songstress Maureen Lupo Lilanda is re-branding her stage name. Affectionately referred to as Aunt Maureen locally, the singer now wants to be identified as Lupo. At 43, Maureen’s music career is not strange to Zambia, and the singer is confident her latest stage identity will not take anything away from her music.

The Ngoma award winner, whose latest album is being produced by Zamsounds of Denmark, said that her album will be entitled ‘Simply Lupo’. “I’m dropping Maureen and Lilanda, I’m just using Lupo on stage. I think musically Lupo sounds easier to pronounce and easier to remember and also I am pro-Zambian, so really I would like to drop the name Maureen because that’s borrowed culture.” She said she’d slowly been introducing the name Lupo to prepare her fans for the change.

“If you noticed I changed from Maureen Lilanda to Maureen Lupo Lilanda, so people will not notice much difference when it’s just Lupo. It will now be the re-establishment of Maureen as Lupo,” Lilanda explained. She described her musical journey as an evolution, tracing it from the time she was a young African trying to imitate Western musicians, to now a mature artiste who appreciates her own tradition and culture.

“In terms of the first album, I was doing everything myself, dancing and all, and now I’m really appreciating my roots and I have people taking care of the recording. I think I’m more experienced, more mature and more saleable, more convincing and more pro-Zambian,” she said.

Lilanda was reluctant to divulge more information about her latest offering but promised not to depart from her style. “People should just look out for Simply Lupo and I think all the songs have a social concern in them, so just look out for all the songs on the album,” she said.

Lilanda said she decided to record in Denmark as a way of attaching great importance to the quality of the product and promised that Simply Lupo was expected to hit the shelves by February 2011.”

This piece interested me. Maureen made her stage debut at the Ridgeway Hotel’s Folk Night when I was General Manager of that hotel – a mighty popular show it was every Tuesday evening too – a great place for unknown artists to come along and show their talent. Maureen’s father was PermSec in the Ministry of Tourism and a friend of mine. We wish Maureen all the best with her new image and new album! We’ll certainly feature it – and her – on our radio show when we get the chance!

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Zambians Do It In Thurrock!


I loved this from UK Zambians

Zambian children in Thurrock – Essex, took to the stage in Taiyaka Taiyaka style, strutting out their stuff in truly Zambian style, to the delight of an 8000 strong crowd. The children shared the stage with X- factor finalists Stacey Solomon, Chico, Rachel Adedeji and other performances from hip hop, rock to Asian culture.

The seventeen – member dance group (including two boys) mesmerised fans with Zambian –waist- wiggling to ‘Taiyaka Taiyaka and ‘Namoonga Oyeye’ tunes on Saturday 24 July 2010, at Grays Beach. A visibly thrilled member of the audience remarked that the swish-swashing moves made the dancers’ bodies look ‘disjointed’ at the waist.

Thurrock Festival is a yearly event organised by the Council and its partners. The event celebrates the rich community of Thurrock, its history and residents. Music and dance are at the heart of the festival with a mixture of traditional and contemporary sounds.

This is the first time the group has performed at the Thurrock festival. The group’s maiden appearance was at a Black History Month event at Gray’s Convent Secondary School in Grays last October. The group’s popularity is steadily growing and is set to raise the Zambian flag higher and higher.

Dancers include Ndelina,Tamara and Mumbi Mulenga, Mphambo and Kasuba Konga, Natasha and Mutale Mushibwe, Nzila Siluwe, Musalwa and Nokwanda Siyunyi, Tishana Nyamustamba, Mwila Mupepa, Makungo Mutale, Mulengu Monga, Sultana Scott, Chisha and Cecilia Masafwa.

The dance group has been brought together by Zambian parents in Thurrock with the aim of teaching Zambia cultural heritage through dance and song. This initiative has fostered in the children, most of whom where born abroad, a sense of identity and pride in their Zambian culture. It was a happy ending with a big ‘family picnic’ for the Zambian families at the gig!

Awesome

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